TAKE 3: Oilers effort needs to make up for their ability

Nobody wants to be in a situation where every time they win a game it’s considered a huge upset.

But that’s where the Edmonton Oilers are heading and that’s certainly when they were Saturday against San Jose.

When one team’s third line centre is Joe Thornton and the other team’s third line centre is Brad Malone, it shouldn’t be a surprise how things turn out.

Nobody is stunned the San Jose Sharks beat the Oilers 5-2 on Saturday, especially after they just beat the Calgary Flames by the same score a few days earlier.

You win some, you lose some. But when a team loses seven of its last eight games, and 11 of its last 13 at home, it doesn’t take much to turn things sour. And that’s there where Oilers fans are now.

What upset everyone most is that it almost looked like the Oilers had accepted their fate not long after the puck dropped Saturday. Shrugging your shoulders and admitting somebody is better than you is no way to run a season, especially when most of the rosters in the league are better than yours.

Every so often you have rise up and beat a better team.

“They (the Sharks) are rolling and a team full of confidence,” said Oilers winger Milan Lucic. “But it is almost like an Any Given Sunday mentality that you need, that anybody can win on any given night.

“Especially with the parity in the league today. If we found a way to bring the type of game that we have had in our three road games after the break, it would have given us a better chance to win.”

WILD CARD

Everyone knew it was going to happen at some point. And now it’s happening.

The Western Conference wildcard zombie walk is picking up speed.

St. Louis is 7-2-1 in its last 10, Chicago is 6-2-2 on the strength of a six-game winning streak, Los Angeles is 6-2-2, Vancouver is 5-3-2.

On Saturday night, five of the eight teams in the hunt picked up points. On Sunday, three more either won or lost in overtime.

The Oilers, meanwhile, came out of the weekend empty handed. The gap on a playoff spot that used to be two points has now grown to six.

Of the nine teams that still consider themselves alive in the wildcard race, Edmonton has the third worst record at 3-5-2 in the last 10.

The situation is approaching crisis mode as they prepare for a three-game road trip to Pittsburgh, Carolina and the New York Islanders.

The Oilers are slowly drifting into the seller’s lane heading into the trade deadline. If they don’t pull out of this, and management is left with no choice but to move out contracts and impending UFA’s in exchange for prospects and picks, then a very thin roster is going to get even thinner.

If that happens it’s going to be a dark, cold walk to the end of the season — lead by two of the most productive offensive players in the game today. This organization is already a laughingstock around the NHL, it doesn’t need this.

BAKERSFIELD ROLLING

Congratulations to the Bakersfield Condors. If there is one area of the Oilers organization that is actually operating on a major league level, it is their minor league team.

A lot of eyebrows were raised last year when Oilers assistant coach Jay Woodcroft, instead of being fired in the purge that saw Jim Johnson and Ian Herbers replaced, was given control of the AHL Condors instead.

It seemed like another classic example of the Oilers inability to get rid of people in the wake of failure. If you are getting rid of assistant coaches because the NHL team had a miserable season, why put one of those assistants in charge of your prospects?

Woodcroft, however, is proving all of his doubters wrong. He is doing a heck of a job down there, leading the Condors on a 12-game win streak and into first place in their division.

More importantly, Edmonton’s young prospects are being developing in a positive, winning environment. That’s crucial for an Oilers organization that has been trying to rid itself of a losing culture on the big team for more than a decade.

Learning how to be a winner in Bakersfield is a good start for those kids because it certainly isn’t what anyone has been teaching them in Edmonton.

This is how farm teams are supposed to operate, with young prospects playing key positions on a team that is learning how to win together. Who knows if that environment will ever make its way up the food chain to Edmonton, but what they’re doing down in Bakersfield is worth applauding.

Oil Spills podcast: Oilers face tough trade decisions soon

The great turtle derby is being contested by half the Western Conference. One thing is for sure: At some point, a couple of these teams are going to break away from the pack. The question in Edmonton is: Do the Oilers have the right team to do it?

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